Here comes "the longest day" as they call it , also call D-Day landing.In 6th June ,1944 , the allies came all the way from Britian arcoss the English channel to Normady , France , they are the ones who liberate France and othe occuipied country in Europe.There were 5 beach heads:Utah , Omaha , Gold , Juno and Sword , but there were more missions then these five beach heads , there were Pointe Du Hoc , St- Mere-Eglise , bridges , Caen , etc...Each soldier experiencing this great historical time would tell you different stories , capturing Nazis , getting stuck on a church's roof even tanks crossing the channel!!
Operation Overlord[]
Operation Overlord was also another name for the mission , D-Day means Day Day , H-Hour means Hour Hour , D-Day is in 6th June and H-Hour is at 6:30. D-Day landing was ready for 4th June , but the weather and sea wasn't calm enough for they to land , so they propose it to 5th June , but it still wasn't calm enough , in 6th June , the weather was improving but not the right one for a huge operationg like D-Day , but they have no choice so Dwight D.Eisenhower(Ike) gave the signal to go.H-Hour minus 2 hours , Douglas C46 aircraft took paratroopers to land in France , such as Ste-Mere-Eglise. While other fighters crash landed in France for the Airbone troopes to capture two major bridges so that the Nazis won't be able to reach to the beach heads.At H-Hour , LCAs and LCTs transport soldiers , vehicles and even tanks!!Then LCAs took American Rangers to Pointe Du Hoc and to sabotage the German's guns , at Utah , it was a big success , at Omaha , it was blood bath , in Juno , Gold and Sword lost half of the men.
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American soldiers on LCA(Landing Craft Assault) heading towards Utah beach
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Involved countries:
British Germans France Norway CanadaPoland New-Zelands Astralia Netherland |
Planning[]
The operation was plan to take place in Normandy, first scouts will go ahead to scan the beach a few days before the operationg starts.Then Sherman tanks were transported arcoss the Channel by floating on the channel. Then Airbone Divisions and Paratroopers will land at Normandy, taking cities and stopping Nazi reinforcements from reaching the beach heads.A few hours before 6:30, the navy opened fire on the beaches, at H-Hour, the ground forces land on Utah, Omaha, Juno, Gold and Sword beaches by LCAs, LCUs and LCTs.American Rangers were also given a mission, they were to land at Pointe-Du Hoc, climb up the cliff and take out the German guns. All this planning needs to combine to the environment in Normandy, and it is all up to the agents and spys, they were parachuted or sneaked though enemy lines to Normandy, they team up with the France resistence, some of them pretend to be Nazi soldiers and sabotaged or killed important Nazi leaders.
Normandy is completely surrounded by Nazi soldiers, an invasion would be impossible without the help of both resistence and confusion. Resistence were working for the allies some months ago and they all had secret codes which tells different resistence to do their job, these codes were in French but even if the Nazis knew French, they would never understand the coded messages. Before the invasion, French resistence sabotaged guns and tanks, they also blow up train tracks to stop the reinforcements to the front lines. Another trick was to confues the enemy, the paratroopers would drop dummies over the area near Caen and hoping the Nazis would attack in a wrong direction, another one was to put fire works on the sky to confuse the Nazis of an air raid.
In the air[]
Both Americans and British have air business but with different strategies, the British, known as RAF(Royal air Force) would send airbones and crash on to the field near their objectives, some have jobs of blocking roads others have to capture bridges instad, but the American will go with the paratroopers instead of crasing in the field, that is a good idea but that might loose many men on the way which did happen then, the paratroopers were all dropped for different targets but only half reach the drop zone, the others were either too far or captured.
American Paratroopers landed on Sante-Mere Eglise weren't so lucky, as the whole town was awoken because of a building fire recently bombed by an air raid, the Nazis were all prepared. "There were white cloth on the sky gliding on the town"--Raymond Paris was a boy when he vitness the landing of the paratroopers in Sante-Mere Eglise. John Steele, a sergeant in the American Air-force, was all prepared in the plane before the jump, when he was dropped onto Sante-Mere Eglise, he was all ready for a fight with the enemy. But soon his luck ran out, he landed on a church in the town and can't get down. He wanted to get to the roof but he can't reach it, if he cut himself loose, he might find himself having a broken leg with some Germans shooting him. So he stayed there, he tried to fire some shots but before he can, a Nazi just spotted him out and fired some rounds from his MP 40. They missed Steele but he was hit on the foot. Soon other Americans killed the Nazi who shot Steele but ignored Steele because of too busy fighting back. Steele watches as his comrade paratroopers fell from the sky, either shot or landed in the flames of the buringing hall. As the church bell rungs, Steele wanted to cover his ears but if he move too much he might drop. Some hours later, some Nazi soldiers took him prisoner from the church window. But when they went out of the church they were immediately shot and Steele was free.Some of the troopes landed on Nazi bases and were either shot or captured as hostages, some landed on trees or telephone poles weren't so fortunate, some of them free themselves or with the help of their friends, some had to hang there until reinforcements(if) found him and free him. Some were dead because of no water or shot by passing by German soldiers.
Ground forces[]
It was H-Hour in Europe, 6:30. Ships on the channel opened fire on the bunkers and defenses on Normandy beach. After that troopers on LCUs, LCAs and LCTs approch Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword beach. On Utah, they were mostly Americans and Canadians. On Omaha, most of them are Americans. Sword and Gold was full of British and Scottish forces while Juno had troops like the Netherlands, Polands and French. Utah was a big success and it is the first beach to go inland. Omaha was a blood bath, as soldiers was killed by MG-42s and nearly everybody have been injured. Juno and Sword encountered some problems at first with the bunkers, but soon tanks came to the rescue. On Gold beach, it was crazy, insane and crazy tanks were landed and in action for the first time, such as the crocodile, a flame flower replacement instead of firing shells, crab tank, to sweep the beach and "kicks" mines out of the way...
Operation PLUTO[]
Operation PLUTO, short for PipeLine Under The Ocean. Was an operation which I think is both risky and smart. Operation Pluto was an operation thought well before D-Day and done before D-Day, it was to lay pipes under the channel between the English port and Normandy. It was planned to get fuel arcoss the channel, pump from the English port to Normandy's beach heads. One of which is in Omaha was destroyed when the Germans dropped bombs onto the Aliies' stations, killing millions.
It's coming to an end!!![]
D-Day was a horrible but bold attack on the Nazis, the Allies caught the Axis by supprise and turn the table on Hitler. From 6:30, 6th June, 1944, D-Day was the most hugest full scale attack of World War II, over 200,000 soldiers from different regions, from every ages and every sexs, D-Day landing, also call Operation overlord lasted until 11th June, 1944, as the Allies pushes inland, into the heart of the Nazi Germans.